Data gathering zone system

ABSTRACT

Described is a data gathering zone system. The system includes a server having a memory for storing area information and a user computing device coupled to the server. The system may operate to allow a user to define a zone around a geographic area to establish a data zone. Mobile device signals that occur within the data zone are collected and aggregated by the server. The server may generate for display the gathered data within the geofenced zone for analysis.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[S]

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application entitled“Data Gathering Zone System,” Ser. No. 17/201,883, filed Mar. 15, 2021,which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application entitled“Data Gathering Zone System,” Ser. No. 63/043,393, filed Jun. 24, 2020,the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated entirely herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Technical Field

This invention generally relates to a system for data gathering, andmore specifically to a system for gathering data regarding an areautilizing a geofence.

State of the Art

There are several instances where an individual or business entity woulddesire to gather data regarding certain areas. For example, gatheringinformation regarding the number of customers going into a competitor'sbusiness, gathering information regarding number of people within anarea, and the like. There is not currently a system that allows fortracking data regarding an area based on geofence technology.

Accordingly, what is needed is a system for gathering data regarding anarea utilizing geofence or other proximity technology allowing forcreating a zone used for remote, automatic and anonymous gathering ofinformation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment includes a data gathering zone system comprising: a serverhaving a memory for storing area information; and a user computingdevice coupled to the server, wherein the server is programmed to:receive and process a signal that the user computing device has accessedthe system and is searching for an area to gather data about; send fordisplay on the user computing device area information comprising a mapof the searched area; receive and process a signal from the usercomputing device comprising a user defined zone on the map displayed onthe user computing device; automatically generate a data gathering zonecorresponding to the user defined zone; establish a geofencecorresponding to the data gathering zone; and gather and aggregate thedata regarding each mobile device that sends a cellular signal whilewithin the geofence of the data gathering zone.

The user computing device may be a mobile computing device. Thegathering may be remote. The gathering may be automatic. The gatheringmay be anonymous. The area information may comprise a geographic area.The geographic area may be selected from a group consisting of abusiness, a city or town, a park, a medical facility, a venue and/or alocation along a street. The server may generate for display on the usercomputing device the gathered and aggregated data within the geofence.The server may generate for display on the user computing device anumber of the mobile devices within the data gathering zone overparticular time periods throughout a day. The system may adjust acounter up or down based on whether the mobile device enters or leavesthe data gathering zone.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following moreparticular description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present invention may be derived byreferring to the detailed description and claims when considered inconnection with the Figures, wherein like reference numbers refer tosimilar items throughout the Figures, and:

FIG. 1 a diagrammatic view of a first part of a data gathering zonesystem according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a view of a user interface for interaction with a datagathering zone to select a user determined zone using the systemaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 a diagrammatic view of a second part of a data gathering zonesystem according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a view of a data zone around a business using a data gatheringzone system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is another view of a data zone around a portion of a city/townusing a data gathering zone system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is another view of a data zone around an amusement park using adata gathering zone system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is another view of a data zone around a music festival using adata gathering zone system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is another view of a data zone around a national park using adata gathering zone system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a view of a user computing device accessing data from a datagathering zone system according to an embodiment; and

FIG. 10 is a view of a user computing device accessing real-time datafrom a data gathering zone system according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a data gathering zonesystem for utilizing a geofence or other proximity technology allowingfor creating a zone used for remote, automatic and anonymous gatheringof information. The system may include the use of a user computingdevice that may be a mobile computing device such as a smartphone, atablet, a wearable, and the like; and/or the system may operate on anytype of computing device as a downloadable application or even as a webapplication.

FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of a data gathering zone system 10. Thesystem 10 may include user computing devices 12 and a server 14, whereineach user computing device 12 is coupled to the computer server 14. Thiscoupling may be a network connection, such as a wireless connectionthrough an Internet connection, a Wi-Fi connection, a Bluetoothconnection or the like, wherein the user computing devices 12 maycommunicate with and receive communication from the server 14. The usercomputing device 12 may be a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, asmartphone, wearable devices and the like. The server 14, in someembodiments, may be a computer server or a cloud-based infrastructurearchitecture.

The server 14 may include a memory storing various data. The memory ofthe server 14 may store area information and may further store data zoneinformation that may be reserved. The area information may include ageographic area, such as, but not limited to, a business, a city ortown, a park, a medical facility, a venue, a location along a street andthe like.

The user computing device 12 may be coupled to the server 14, and,referring to FIGS. 2-8 , the server 14 may be programmed to receive andprocess a signal that a user computing device 12 has accessed the system10 such as by running a zone gathering data app, website or web app onthe user computing device 12, and is searching for an area to gatherinformation about. The server 14 may then be programmed to send fordisplay on the user computing device area information including a map ofthe searched area (see FIG. 2 ). The server 14 may also be programmed toreceive and process a signal from the user computing device including auser defined zone 16 on the map displayed on the user computing device(See FIG. 2 ). The server may then be programmed to automaticallygenerate a data gathering zone 20 corresponding to the user defined zone16 and establish a geofence corresponding to the data gathering zone 20(see FIG. 3 ). The server may then be programmed gather and aggregatedata regarding each mobile device 18 that sends a cellular signal whilewithin the geofence of the data gathering zone 20 (see FIG. 3 ). Thesezones 20 may include a geographic area, such as, but not limited to, abusiness (FIG. 4 ), a portion of a city or town (FIG. 5 ), an amusementpark (FIG. 6 ), a festival (FIG. 7 ), a national park (FIG. 8 ), amedical facility, a venue, a location along a street and the like areaswith fluctuating numbers of people in the area.

The system may utilize technology to capture individual instances of acellular signal being sent from within the data zone 20. This allows auser to draw or otherwise designate an area using the system 10 forwhich they wish to track cell signals within that zone. The systemcollects the cell signal data automatically. Because the system onlydetermines if a cell signal is present within the zone for each mobiledevice within the zone and adjusts a counter up or down based on whethera mobile device enters or leaves the zone, it does not collect personalinformation from the mobile devices. In at least this way, the data isanonymous. The system may be utilized to determine the number of peoplevisiting a business such as a grocery store (FIG. 4 ) so that thebusiness itself can determine its patronage or by a competitor to seehow they compare to the business. It can be used in instances likeportions of the city/town or festivals, like music festivals (FIGS. 5and 7 ) to see how crowds are gathering for management or otherpurposes. The system 10 can be used for amusement parks or even nationalparks (FIGS. 6 and 8 ) to determine how many visitors are within thepark and any given time to determine the best time to visit or if aperson wishes to visit.

The system 10 may include the server 14 programmed to generate and sendfor display on the user computing device data gathered from within thedata zone. For example, and without limitation, the system may displaythe number of people within the data zone over particular time periodsthroughout a day. FIG. 9 depicts an embodiment of such a data displaywherein the number of people within a store over one hour time periods(which may be any time period selected by either the user or the system)throughout a day. This provides an overview of how many customers arevisiting. This data may be aggregated over time and trends may bedeveloped and the data may be searched, parsed and/or organized invarious ways for analysis. Another example may be providing real-timedata of people within the data zone to display fluctuations in numbersof people within the data zone as it is occurring or shortly thereafter.For example, FIG. 10 depicts a graph showing real-time or near real-timedata of the number of people in a national park in a day. With regard toFIGS. 9 and 10 , such data may be generated for any type of data zoneand utilized in order to analyze and assess current situations regardingnumbers of people within the data zone.

Embodiments may be available on or through the internet, such as throughdomain names reserved and owned by Applicant that includevirtual-zones.com, corralthedata.com, geolasso.com, secretgeo.com or thelike.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method, or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wire-line, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object-oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, cloud-based infrastructurearchitecture, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps tobe performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or otherdevices to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/actsspecified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The embodiments and examples set forth herein were presented in order tobest explain the present invention and its practical application and tothereby enable those of ordinary skill in the art to make and use theinvention. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat the foregoing description and examples have been presented for thepurposes of illustration and example only. The description as set forthis not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to theprecise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possiblein light of the teachings above without departing from the spirit andscope of the forthcoming claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A data gathering zone system comprising: aserver having a memory for storing area information; and a usercomputing device coupled to the server, wherein the server is programmedto: receive and process a signal that the user computing device hasaccessed the system and is searching for an area to gather data about;send for display on the user computing device the area information;receive and process a signal from the user computing device comprising auser defined zone; automatically generate a data gathering zonecorresponding to the user defined zone; establish a geofencecorresponding to the data gathering zone; and gather and aggregate thedata regarding each mobile device that sends a cellular signal whilewithin the geofence of the data gathering zone, wherein the systemadjusts a counter up or down based on whether the mobile device entersor leaves the data gathering zone.
 2. The data gathering zone system ofclaim 1, wherein the user computing device is a mobile computing device.3. The data gathering zone system of claim 1, wherein the areainformation comprises a map of the searched area.
 4. The data gatheringzone system of claim 1, wherein the data gathering is anonymous.
 5. Thedata gathering zone system of claim 1, wherein the area informationcomprises a geographic area.
 6. The data gathering zone system of claim5, wherein the geographic area is selected from a group consisting of abusiness, a city or town, a park, a medical facility, a venue and/or alocation along a street.
 7. The data gathering zone system of claim 1,wherein the server generates for display on the user computing devicethe gathered and aggregated data within the geofence.
 8. The datagathering zone system of claim 1, wherein the server generates fordisplay on the user computing device a number of the mobile deviceswithin the data gathering zone over particular time periods throughout aday.